Public Relations Management Speech Competition

By Kirby Venlet, 2nd year PR student

The anticipation is over and the 3 winners of the Public Relations Management Speech Competition have been announced. The finals of the competition, for the 1st year PR students, of the Faculty of Informatics and Design, took place on Friday, 24 October, at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

Guest speakers, acclaimed South African comedian, Brendan Murray, and Tom Dawson-Squibb, motivational speaker for ITISA, a developmental and change management company, gave the students tips on how to be a great public speaker.

“Keeping the audience’s attention was a key factor,” said Tom Dawson-Squibb who explained the basics of confident public speaking. Dawson-Squibb used entertaining video clips from “YouTube” as examples of holding your audience’s attention. With an Honours Degree in Business Science in Organisational Psychology from UCT, he was able to provide students with much perspective in leadership necessary for presenting in the business and corporate context.

“Speaking publicly is just like speaking privately. You always start with small talk, like the weather, to loosen up your audience,” said Brendan Murray who spoke about what it takes to be an entertaining speaker. He knew just how to get the attention of the audience with a loud and energetic welcoming jump onto stage. “When you are speaking to an audience, you hold the power and you need to use this power in your favour.”
Murray had the audience in stitches, not surprising since he has been described as ‘South Africa’s Best Young Comic’ and has performed at the Cape Town International Comedy Festival, Rocking the Daisies and toured with the Comedy Revolution.

The focus then moved to the speech competition finals. Thirteen finalists battled for the first place spot but it was Anike Theron who was awarded with 3rd position for her intriguing speech entitled ‘Are your thoughts your own?’ Lirita Hugo was awarded 2nd position with her topic ‘Too much of anything is bad’ and 1st place, with the thought-provoking topic, ‘Money does not create self worth’ went to Bianca Carls.

Prizes included vouchers to the value of R1000 from Van Schaik, a gift card to the value of R300 from Canal Walk Shopping Centre and R300 in vouchers from TygerValley Shopping Centre. Annette Grobler from Student Affairs also sponsored prizes to the value of R1000 and MCD made gifts available to the value of R300.

The competition formed part of the student’s syllabus for one of their major subjects, namely Communications Science 1, presented by Ayesha Toyer. The finals were judged by Public Relations Management lecturers, members of industry, and guests. The judging panel included Prof. Johann van der Merwe, our head of department and an experienced stage actor, Dr. Nirvana Bechan, Elza Myburgh, Thabisa Nondzube, Darren Rix (speech competition winner of 2007), Stefan Joubert (from industry) and guest speaker Tom Dawson-Squibb. Luvuyo Jongile, 1st year PR student, acted as Master of Ceremonies and welcomed the guests, speakers and audience.

For those who missed the event, the top tip for giving a great speech came from Brendan Murray who said, “Be yourself and always have fun with your speech.”
A big thank you to organiser, Ayesha Toyer, who described the event as: “A wonderful opportunity for students to put what they learn into practice and show the world what they are made of. Our Top 13 made the department proud, they were professional, entertaining and most of all, they were persuasive. Thank you to the presenters, guest speakers, sponsors, MC, technical support, photographer, audience members and our wonderful judges.”